Is there anyone who knows about computers who can help me?

[NotAnotherBrick]

I've got a long thread going with one kind MNer who has had to log off now, and I'm worried the length will put off other potential helpers, but I'm getting to the end of my rag with my flipping laptop. I've wasted all afternoon on it and I really needed to be doing work for my new business...work I can't do until I get it fixed.

I'd be very grateful for anyone else who can talk me through things. I've basically got to the point where it'll connect, but not get any further than 'authenticating'.

Thread is here

I have read the thread and have no answers but just thought id ask who your internet provider is? and do you have an extended warranty on it?

you can call either of those people and they will be able to control your laptop from their end and fix it all.

We had loads of trouble with ours not so long ago. oour home broadband is with o2 so i just rang o2 and they did it all for me.

my mum had some trouble with hers and has cover with pc world and she just rang up their technicians and they did it for her.

is this an option for you?

Ooh, will have a look. thank you.

No luck - theyd idn't supply the router so they can't help :-(

oh right. thats crapola!

who are you with for broadband?

does the router have a rest button?

Virgin

Yes, it does, but my other laptop is working fine on it - it's not the router that's not working, it's the laptop.

oh. I'm out then sorry!

Could you call pc world for some advice? you never know they might help

Yes, but I can't afford to have to shell out £50

cripes I don't know what else to suggest. sorry

From reading through the thread, my best guess would be that the laptop is not authenticating with the router and thus it isn't getting the ip address and dns addresses set.

But I assume from what you have posted, that you have another laptop that is connecting with no issues so this would suggest that the router is working.

Do you have any nearby web-cafe's where you can check if you can connect to there wifi? If you can't the wifi card in the laptop may be suspect.

The one thing we have run into on our wifi is the maximum number of devices that can connect. I had our router set such that it would only assign a maximum of 3 ip addresses. The last device to try connecting to the wifi was blocked until I increased the number of addresses allowed.

The ms knowledge base article that was mentioned talked about hibernation. From experience, our Dell laptops have never liked hibernation. We always fully shutdown at the end of the day.

It actually could still be the router. I often have this problem with one of my laptops and resetting the router fixes the problem.

So I would try that. Couldn't hurt. Might help!